It’s a question that has plagued the sugar factory, just east of Longmont. For the past 120 years, the towering smokestack, cluster of brick buildings, and large metal shed have been part of the local skyline. As the property sits, it has continued to draw the interest of those who grew up hearing tales of what it was like to explore the unlit twists and turns of the once-prosperous 110,000-square-foot factory, left dank and crumbling.

The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office warns that the decrepit buildings — visible from the well-traveled Colo. 119 — are a serious hazard to those who enter, with holes in floors and the numerous air-born health concerns from asbestos to small-animal feces.

Not long after the factory shuttered in 1977, self-employed broker Dick Thomas of Denver bought the property from Great Western Sugar Company in 1980 under the name Clean Energy LLC. Thomas said he bought it for roughly $1.7 million. It includes 11 buildings on roughly 40 acres of property, according to county records. Thomas said he liked the factory’s brick architecture and its ties to Longmont history.

While Thomas said there are “no specific plans” to re-purpose the buildings in the near future, there has been interest from developers. Thomas said he hopes the storied factory can be preserved. Others, however, contend that it’s time to knock the old facility to the ground.

The Great Western Sugar Factory outside of Longmont is pictured around 1905. (Photo by Charles Boynton, courtesy Longmont Museum)

What was the sugar factory?

There was a time when the factory at 11939 Sugar Mill Road was a hub of economic activity.

Producing more than a million pounds of sugar every day, during the three to four months it processed beets after harvest , the Great Western Sugar Company, a subsidiary of New Jersey-based American Sugar Company, was the city’s top employer for most of factory’s 74-year lifespan, according to Erik Mason, curator of history at the Longmont Museum.

The factory’s presence is credited for nearly doubling Longmont’s population from 2,000 to more than 4,000 when it opened in 1903, Mason said. He estimated that hundreds worked for the factory during its peak season, from roughly September to February. Putting an exact number on those employed through sugar factory is difficult to do, because it included farmers and field workers who planted and harvested the beets, Mason said.

“When it came in 1903, you see a pretty significant economic boom happening in Longmont,” Mason said. “The factory cost about $1 million to build, which was significant at that time. Longmont began to grow.”

Although the facility is located on Sugar Mill Road, Mason said it is referred to as a factory, not a mill.

Mason said that the sugar factory produced mostly granulated sugar, through a process in which the beets were sliced and run through a chemical bath to extract the sugar. It also produced other commodities such as animal feed made of beet pulp.

The broken down condition of the old Western Sugar Factory site outside Longmont on March 18, 2020.(Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)

The image of a bustling factory is a stark contrast to its presence today. Boulder County Sheriff’s Office Cmdr. Jim Chamberlin, who has helped to patrol the area, said he hasn’t been inside the factory but once peered into the buildings. He saw gaping holes in the floor and broken-down stairs. A quick Google search of the factory shows images of collapsed walls that have sent bricks cascading in haphazard piles. Everything is so structurally unstable that emergency responders, in 2010, decided they won’t go inside, unless there’s a life-threatening situation.

When asked if anyone has died inside the factory, Chamberlin said, “not that I’m aware of.”

Despite its decaying status, Mason said it would be a loss to see the buildings disappear altogether.

“Sugar companies were a huge part of Colorado’s economy,” Mason said. “To my knowledge, none of the factories have been preserved.”

The sugar industry employed more than a thousand people directly and thousands more farmers and laborers across Colorado, according to Mason. As for Great Western Sugar Company, the operation was founded in the early 20th century and “pioneered” the sugar beet industry across northern Colorado, according to an online history of Western Sugar Cooperative, a group of farmers who bought the company in 2002. Western Sugar Cooperative, today, operates sugar processing facilities in Nebraska, Wyoming and Fort Morgan, Colo. There are eight silos at the Longmont sugar factory site, which the cooperative continues to use for sugar storage.

Life for the factory operators and their employees got a little less sweet when two Texas brothers, Nelson and Herbert Hunt, bought Great Western in the early 1970s. According to Mason, the brothers were more interested in cornering the market on silver and drained money from the sugar company to feed their prospects, which ultimately were unsuccessful. The brothers began shuttering local sugar factories, including the one in Longmont. In the 1980s, Great Western Sugar Company filed for bankruptcy, Mason said.

Urban Land Institute study could provide outline for property’s future

Tony Chacon, the city’s redevelopment/urban renewal manager, said that the city is interested in seeing the sugar factory re-purposed. Although the factory is located in unincorporated Boulder County, its historical ties make it an interest to Longmont. He added that the city has not yet talked about acquiring the property directly but has been helping to facilitate discussion about possible uses for the land and actively seeking development interest.

“It is probably the most iconic image of the city of Longmont,” Chacon said. “Even though it’s not in the city, it’s one of the most prominent edifices of the community itself. There’s significant community here in Longmont that wants to preserve it to the best extent possible.”

Because the factory isn’t in Longmont, Chacon said it would have to be annexed into the city for the city to participate in redevelopment, which Thomas has not applied for. Chacon said the city has long heard from developers who have expressed interest in the property, including within the last year. Chacon said the major interest is turning the land into affordable housing.

Chacon said the city was selected to be part of a study by the Urban Land Institute Technical Advisory Panel. The ULI is a nonprofit research and education organization. In August, the city anticipates a TAP assessment of roughly 120 acres of property, largely located in unincorporated Boulder County, including the sugar factory. The results will provide a “comprehensive analysis of development opportunity” and an outline for moving potential projects forward, Chacon said.

Chacon said the city does have public safety concerns about the factory as the plans to develop it remain in limbo. Despite its county jurisdiction, he said the city’s fire district has a mutual aid agreement and has responded to incidents there in the past.

A constant battle to keep trespassers at bay

In the past two to three weeks, Thomas has seen a daily resurgence in people breaking in and vandalizing his property. He also said he has uncovered numerous social media videos showing young people on the property. Since then, he and his son, Steve, have worked to further ramp up security measures, including installing new security cameras, looking at hiring security personnel, as well as repairing fence holes and damaged property. Before the uptick in incidents this last month, Thomas said break-ins had been greatly reduced, compared to years in the past. He asked that people respect the “no trespassing” signs posted on the property.

“It’s for their own safety that we are trying to keep them out,” Thomas said. “The fact that we have to keep repairing vandalism makes it all worse.”

Asbestos warning at the old Western Sugar Factory site outside Longmont on March 18, 2020.(Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)

Thomas said graffiti is one of the biggest issues.

“That’s been a headache,” Thomas said, in reference to graffiti. “Definitely everyone has been warned about it. We’ve put up some 10-foot panels as far as keeping them out of the factory. The ones that are bound and determined to do some graffiti, they will get in anywhere.”

Jan Bejarano, 76, lives and works next to the sugar factory. Bejarano is the manager of East Point Mini Storage, 12121 Sugar Mill Road. She has worked for the facility for the past 10 years and said a westward facing window gives her a view of the factory.

“The place is disgusting,” Bejarano said. “Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it — even the police won’t go in.”

Bejarano said she has seen homeless people living in and around the property. She said the factory is only partially to blame, given the area is more remote. Thomas said no one lives in the buildings, though he and his son have found people on the property who had been there for a day or two.

When asked if Bejarano could see the buildings being re-purposed, Bejarano said she could, but not without overcoming some major challenges.

“I guess the buildings could be made into something else, but, boy, it’s sure a mess,” Bejarano said.

Bejarano said she has seen fires at the factory.

In 2016 and 2017, firefighters battled two blazes on the property. The 2016 fire, which started in a former tool room, caused part of the building to collapse. Another fire on Christmas morning 2017 just west of the factory’s silos prompted emergency response. Responding firefighters arrived to find a section of the property fully engulfed in flames, but they were able to keep the flames from spreading.

Jesse Rounds, the county’s planning manager for Code Compliance & Public Information, said Thomas agreed to repair property fencing and put up screening material that would block the factory from sight. Security cameras were set up.

Every three months, a code compliance officer visits the sugar factory to assure that these initiatives are being followed.

“There are a lot of public safety concerns there,” Rounds said, “but (Thomas) has done a good job mitigating the attraction of them.”

Thomas said 10-foot paneling was erected on the east side of the property. However, he said, people continue to scale the 6- to 8-foot fencing, which is topped with barbed wire and surrounds the rest of the property. Thomas said he and his son spend three days a week working at the factory to repair fence holes and property damage.

Patroling the factory

Boulder County Sheriff’s Deputies Kelly Boden, left, and Steve Kruise, talk about some of the calls they have had at the old Western Sugar Factory site outside Longmont on March 18, 2020. Cmdr. Deputies patrol the sugar factory once or twice a day.(Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)

Cmdr. Chamberlin said said deputies patrol the sugar factory once or twice a day.

Chamberlin said that in the early 2000s there were frequent reports of property trespassing and ground fires. During a March interview, Chamberlin said the number of incidents had since tapered off.

“I just don’t think people go there as much as they used to,” Chamberlin said. “There is not as much hype as there once was.”

Chamberlin said that when he peered into one of the decaying buildings once about 20 years ago, he holes in the floor so broad that anyone traversing the building could risk falling two stories. Chamberlin emphasized that those who do enter the property could be charged with trespassing.

A merged past and future

As a broker, Thomas said he has helped to secure land for developments in several major projects, including the former Westminster Mall, which was demolished in 2011 after 34 years of life, and numerous subdivisions. Thomas added that he has been in conversation with the city about potential plans for the property and numerous developers, including one with ideas to create affordable housing on the property. His own vision includes seeing the buildings re-purposed as a museum or potentially using the boiler house, which houses two boilers from when the factory was operational, for producing biomass to generate electricity. He did not cost estimates for these plans.

The property where the sugar factory stands is zoned general industrial. Rounds said it is difficult to know whether a biomass facility would fit the zoning qualifications, without knowing detailed plans for the facility. He said a power-generation facility would also likely require state approval.

Thomas remains optimistic that the factory will one day be part of the Boulder County community. Until then, he asked that people appreciate it from a distance.

“Everything you want to see on the inside, you can see on the internet,” Thomas said. “Please let us do our work.”

The old Western Sugar Factory site outside Longmont on March 18, 2020.(Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer)

Kelsey Hammon covers crime and breaking news in Boulder County. She is a University of Northern Colorado journalism graduate. Prior to writing for the Boulder Daily Camera and Longmont Times-Call, she worked for the Niles Daily Star in southwest Michigan. She can be reached at 303-473-1355 or khammon@prairemountainmedia.com.